Red Sox Maul Indians' Pen,
Advance to the World Series

By

Carl Bialik and

Jason Fry

Updated Oct. 22, 2007 11:08 a.m. ET

The Curse of Rocky Colavito lives on.

The Cleveland Indians, once commanding a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series, saw their season end last night as the Boston Red Sox savaged their bullpen for eight runs in two innings -- an 11-2 win that gave Boston its 12th pennant. Baseball fans have long debated which is worse: a tight, agonizing game that ends in defeat, or a blowout that turns hope into folly. In the Indians' final game of 2007, their fans suffered both.

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"What a fold," mourns Bud Shaw in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "Cleveland's clocks and hearts were set on Tribe Time one minute, closing time the next. The final touch was Rafael Betancourt, the good Raffy in this postseason, dressing as Roberto Hernandez a week and a half short of Halloween. [Third-base coach] Joel Skinner's double clutch looked to be the tipping point until Betancourt went 'tilt.' Not sending Kenny Lofton home in a 3-2 game exemplified the final three pratfalls of the series with the Boston Red Sox. But that's not why The Indians were outscored, 30-5, in three consecutive losses. A sure, confident team looked suddenly overcome by the size of the stage."

The Indians blog The Disappointment Zone dissects Mr. Skinner's failure to test Manny Ramirez's arm by sending Mr. Lofton home as the tying run before trying for perspective: "96 wins, tied for the best in baseball, even with four fewer home games than every other team in the league. [C.C.] Sabathia is the likely Cy Young winner and [Fausto] Carmona will finish in the top five. [Ryan] Garko showed he can man first base for years to come. Betancourt transformed into the best set-up guy in baseball. [Jensen] Lewis and [Rafael] Perez emerge as scary arms in the bullpen even though they both began the season in the minors. The rally pies and Kenny Lofton turning back the clock. This was a great season, which is why it hurts so much right now.

For the Red Sox, meanwhile, it's another gutty comeback -- and a warning to the Colorado Rockies (remember them?) that some awfully big bats await them at Fenway Park Wednesday night. Manny? Big Papi? Sure, but the Rockies also best beware of Kevin Youkilis (who perhaps ought to be rechristened the Greek God of Hits) and Dustin Pedroia.

With Boston returning to the World Series, it falls to columnists to put the last shovels of dirt on the grave of the noble, star-crossed Red Sox. At Fenway last night there was no sign of Bucky Dent, Buckner or Aaron Boone, but plenty of the Dropkick Murphys, Kevin Millar, and Dancing Papelbon.

"And so the Sox are in the World Series for the second time in four years, which hasn't happened since James Michael Curley and George Herman Ruth prowled the narrow streets of Boston," Dan Shaughnessy writes in the Boston Globe, adding: "This must have been what it felt like in the early days of Fenway when the Royal Rooters ruled and the Red Sox were regular hosts of baseball's autumnal showcase. From 1915 through 1918, the Sox won three World Series. They did not win again until 2004, the beginning of a magical October run that has resumed over the last four days."

"Gone forever are the Red Sox of yesterday," writes Tony Massarotti in the Boston Herald. "In Boston, during the baseball season, there is now only an endless succession of tomorrows."

The Bosox of old, he writes, "made critical blunders and paid for them dearly, and were reminded, year after year after year, that they had made unforgettable, unforgivable mistakes. Not now. Not anymore. Now, when the Red Sox trail by a 3-1 series score, as they did against these Indians, people cite 2004 instead of 1986 or '78 or '67 or '46. The Red Sox celebrate their heroes instead of vilifying their goats, and the good things are anticipated more."

* * *

With the World Series matchup set, the Fix is proud to announce its 2007 World Series odesters -- Jason Sindler will do the honors for the Rockies, while Mike Bonafide pays homage to the Red Sox. Look for their odes tomorrow and Wednesday. And the Fix would like to tip its cap to Tim Cahill, our Indians odester. The Indians' loss left Mr. Cahill on the sidelines, but the Tribe will be back -- and we hope he will be too.

* * *

Before Game 7, an unhappy distraction: Pitcher Paul Byrd admitted, in the wake of a San Francisco Chronicle story, that he'd used Human Growth Hormone. (Baseball didn't ban HGH until January 2005, a week after the Chronicle says Mr. Byrd made his final purchase.)

Mr. Byrd -- a thoughtful man who's frequently spoken about his Christian faith without being strident about it -- didn't hide from the media, holding an impromptu press conference against a brick wall at Fenway Park. There, he insisted the HGH was to treat a pituitary-gland condition, noted that he'd paid for it with his own credit card and had it shipped directly to him, and said he'd been tempted to take more than the prescribed dosage in order to put more life on an average fastball but never done so.

On the other hand, Mr. Byrd's insistence that Major League Baseball knew of his condition and how he treated it was apparently news to MLB and the Indians, and two of his prescriptions were written by a dentist suspended in 2003 for fraud and incompetence.

In the Plain-Dealer, Terry Pluto writes of his desire to believe Mr. Byrd -- and of his doubts.

"I consider the Indians pitcher one of the best people I've met in sports," he writes. "We've had some long discussions about life away from sports, about dealing with temptations on the road. We talked about trying to live our faith and not coming across as a phony or being better than anyone else, and how we say we want to follow God and know there are times when we fell so short."

Undoubtedly, Mr. Pluto speaks for many fans when he writes that "I so want Byrd to be clean on this issue, but this is a mess."

* * *

In the NFL, it was a Sunday for nailbiters.

The Chicago Bears were stuck on their own 3, down 16-12 against the Philadelphia Eagles with 1:57 to go, a Philadelphia crowd baying at them and no timeouts. No matter: Brian Griese (whose helmet audio had cut out) led the Bears 97 yards, hitting Muhsin Muhammed in the end zone for a 15-yard TD pass with nine seconds to go.

In the Chicago Sun-Times, Rick Telander writes that Mr. Griese's audio malfunction "may have been a wonderful thing. Freed of any connection to the mother ship, and all the controlling influences of men in polyester wearing headsets and paid to tell him what to do, he directed as miraculous a come-from-behind drive as Bears fans have seen in, well, frankly, I couldn't tell you."

The Washington Redskins had to survive 13 fourth-quarter points from the Arizona Cardinals to escape with a wild 21-19 win: The final 30 seconds saw Arizona use three quarterbacks, score a touchdown, miss a 2-point conversion, recover an onside kick and just miss a 55-yard field goal. (Great game story from the AP here.)

"If the Redskins don't survive yesterday's game, it's not a reach to call it the beginning of the end, a defining moment that would set in motion Coach Joe Gibbs's second retirement from coaching after this season," writes Mike Wise in the Washington Post.

And in Denver, the Broncos' Jason Elam connected for a 49-yard field goal as time expired, good for a 31-28 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"What the Broncos did against a strong Pittsburgh team, while playing without injured center Tom Nalen, receiver Javon Walker and cornerback Champ Bailey cannot be underestimated," Mark Kiszla writes in the Denver Post. "Missing so many veterans, this is a young Denver team, and the confidence of the Kid Broncs was shaken. In football terms, it was as close to a must win as the sixth game on the NFL schedule can possibly be."

-- Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don't keep it to yourself -- write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we'll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix.

About the Fixers

Carl Bialik and Jason Fry write The Daily Fix every weekday morning for the Online Journal. The Daily Fix offers links to the best of the day's sports columns from around the Web -- whether it's the latest trade talk in major-league baseball or the newest furor about an athlete's life off the field.

Carl writes Numbers Guy, which appears alternate Fridays in the print Journal and each day online. Jason is an editor at the Online Journal. He also writes Real Time, which appears Mondays.

Carl is a fan of the Mets (and the A's, when the Mets aren't in it), the New York Giants, the Knicks, the New York Rangers, Yale and Syracuse. Jace's teams are the Mets, the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's also willing to give the Brooklyn Nets a shot.

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